Duck Au Vin

The other afternoon after I got back from a short shift we had the usual “What do you fancy for dinner” conversation. But neither of us had a plan. On occasions like this I usually go to the supermarket, find something appealing and we build a recipe around it. But these Duck Legs were clearly mispriced and deserved something a bit special. Even the staff thought the price at £1.75 was wrong, but that’s what the system said, far be it from me to disagree. We had the remains of a bottle of Red Wine from a few months ago when we had a guest. So a bit of Googling and recipe alteration resulted in this!

Ingredients:-

2 Duck Legs
2 Tbsp plain flour (gluten free for us)
1 Tbsp sunflower oil
2 Small Carrots , chopped
1 Onion , chopped
2 Garlic cloves , roughly chopped
½ a Bottle cheap Red Wine
4 Sprigs of Thyme & 2 Bay Leaves
140g Smoked Bacon lardons
120g baby button mushroom
Salt & Pepper to season

Method:-

(1) Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Tip the duck into a large bowl and season. Scatter over the flour and toss until coated. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof casserole dish with a lid and  slowly brown the Duck on all sides. Remove the duck to a plate, then add the carrots, onion and garlic to the dish and cook for 5 mins until just starting to colour.
(2) Nestle the duck amongst the veg and pour over the wine. Add the herbs, season, then bring everything to the boil.
(3) To serve, heat a pan and sizzle the Lardons for 5 mins. Turn up the heat, add the mushrooms and cook for 3-4 mins. Return the duck and sauce to the dish and simmer for 10 mins until the sauce has reduced a little. Serve each person a duck leg with some sauce spooned over.

We served this with Broccoli on a bed of mashed Potatoes. It really didn’t need anything else and was really tender.